Yellammā

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Yellammā (Ellammaṉ, Eḷammā, Yēlū, and many further forms). A goddess of folk Hinduism, venerated particularly in Mahārāṣṭra, Karṇāṭaka, and further south, by the lower castes. The most likely etymology of her name is from a Dravidian ēḻ, ‘seven’, and ammaṉ, ‘mother, goddess’, and thus alludes to a belief, found all over W. India, in the ‘seven sisters’ or ‘seven mothers’. The main ritual centres of her worship are the temples of Mahūr (E. Mahārāṣṭra) and Saundattī (Karṇāṭaka), but in simpler form her worship is performed all over the area in the villages.